Monopolies, Intangible Assets and the Disruptive Economy with Kai Wu

Our economy is changing. The largest, most successful companies in the world no longer require substantial tangible assets to operate their businesses. The businesses that are disrupting our world and wielding monopolistic power aren't powered by plants and factories. Instead their value lies in things like brands and technology and the value of their networks.  This new world has challenged many traditional beliefs about investing. Everything from how we define value to how we look at growth has changed.  More traditional methods are now being supplemented by things like alternative data and machine learning.  In this episode, we speak to Kai Wu of Sparkline Capital, who has written some of the best research we have seen on these topics.  We discuss:  - The forces causing disruption in our economy and how to measure its impact - How to measure intangible assets using both traditional fundamentals and more advanced metrics - The rise of monopolies and the implications for investors  - The impact of all of this for investors who use traditional fundamental strategies.  We hope you enjoy the discussion.  FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SPARKLINE CAPITAL https://www.sparklinecapital.com/ FOLLOW KAI ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/ckaiwu ABOUT THE PODCAST  Excess Returns is an investing podcast hosted by Jack Forehand (@practicalquant) and Justin Carbonneau (@jjcarbonneau), partners at Validea. Justin and Jack discuss a wide range of investing topics including factor investing, value investing, momentum investing, multi-factor investing, trend following, market valuation and more with the goal of helping those who watch and listen become better long term investors. SEE LATEST EPISODES https://www.validea.com/excess-returns-podcast FIND OUT MORE ABOUT VALIDEA https://www.validea.com FOLLOW OUR BLOG https://blog.validea.com FIND OUT MORE ABOUT VALIDEA CAPITAL https://www.valideacapital.com FOLLOW JACK Twitter: https://twitter.com/practicalquant LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-forehand-8015094 FOLLOW JUSTIN Twitter: https://twitter.com/jjcarbonneau LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcarbonneau